Newark United Nations Day Scrapbooks

The Newark chapter of the American Association for the United Nations (AAUN) was founded ca. 1952, with Sylvia Josephson, Elizabeth Tate, and Ceil Arons among the original members. The group, interested in advancing the cause of world peace and issues of import before the UN, held monthly meetings; created an annual Eleanor Roosevelt Workshop in Human Relations, held at Douglass College every summer; provided guest speakers to civic and student groups; sponsored fundraisers; and opened an information center on the 4th floor ladies lounge of Bamberger's. The group also worked with the Mayor's Commission on Group Relations to create an annual celebration of the United Nations. The event often included a conference, a concert, essay contests, and a dinner featuring a prominent guest speaker. Among the speakers were Eleanor Roosevelt (1959) and Alex Quaison-Sackey of Ghana, then President of the United Nations General Assembly (1965). In 1958 the conference topics were the Middle East, the Far East, and nuclear disarmament. Dr. Leo Litsky presented the essay contest awards, and the Newark Symphony Orchestra provided the entertainment.

By 1967 the annual celebration had become a week-long affair with a committee of 100 involved in the organizing of receptions, seminars, exhibits, educational activities in schools; displays in windows of department stores, banks, and other businesses; and even a cookbook. At the annual dinner, Ossie Davis read the Preamble to the Charter of the UN. Also by 1967, the AAUN organizers had been supplanted by a committee of the Mayor's office, the Newark Committee for United Nations Week Observance. This committee included representatives of business, religious, and educational groups, the Human Rights Commission, and the NAACP.